ProDave

Strange. Mine only takes a couple of minutes to defrost so can't steal much heat from the tank. Mine has been working fine these last few days with -9 nights and -2 days. But just above 0 is worst for defrosting.

No cheap Island hoods though.

That test gear do you have access to? The LM371 is an adjustable voltage regulator. If it were me I would rig up any transformer I had to hand, fed from a variac. DC volt meter on the output of the LM371, crank up the input voltage on the variac until the DC output stabilised and did not rise any further, and them neasure the secondary voltage from my test transformer and order one to suit. the replacement might not be an exact drop in and may mean a bit of PCB buchery. But FIRST check those 4 diodes next to where the tx came out. If one or more is short that will be the reason it has cooked. What is it by the way? make and model number of the equipment?

They only do "known brands" and yes they gave us a great price on a Fridge Freezer, but their cheapest known brand Island cooker hood is 2.5 times the price of the "own brand" from the big orange shop.

The trouble with that is at my price point it is "own brand" territory, even though they may look identical. I am not in the Bosch or Meile category. Anyway I tried again (having calmed down thanks to dinner and wine) and tried again on the big orange DIY shop website and this time it went through with £10 delivery. I was keen to use the big orange shop as Father Christmas sent me a £50 voucher and I could not think of much else to spend it on. This will probably be the last item on my VAT claim which I will be posting shortly.

Apart from paying for 2 lots of delivery and putting someone to a great deal of trouble, it would have the wrong name on the invoice so I would not be able to claim the VAT back. and I bet they would still call it a 2 man delivery which would be £19.99 for England. I will have another go at phoning the orange shed tomorrow.

I was trying not to name names. they are the ones that want £59.99 for a 2 man delivery of a cooker hood.

I would try powering it up to see if it is still intact and measure the secondary voltage that way. Can you post a pic of what it came from, presumably you have just de soldered it from a PCB? I take it the item was not working, are you sure it's the transformer, e,g a shorted bridge rectifier would stop it working and make the tx get all hot and bothered.

I am trying to buy an island cooker hood. This is turning into a frustrating waste of time. First attempt, a direct appliance website. Yes they have one that looks okay and reasonably priced. Add it to my basket. go to checkout. It only gives me one option for delivery at £59.99. According to their delivery information I should be able to get "1 man delivery 5 working days" to the Highlands for £14.99 So I phone them. "That item is 2 man delivery and £59.99 due to it's size" and no amount of persuading would convince them that a cooker hood can be lifted by one man. They won't get the order on principle. Next attempt the big orange shed. They have one very similar very similar price. So I try and buy one. Add it to the basket. go to checkout. Get part way through and confronted with "We only have 240 of this in stock. Please choose one of the following options: Remove it from your basket. Add to your wish list for later" Can't get through to them on the phone. Off to find a brick wall to bang my head against which will be more productive use of my time. Plenty out there at lottery winner prices which of course is not me.

Thanks for letting us know @Curlybonce and glad it turned out to be a simple fix.

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The chief advantages of UFH are no radiators to clog the rooms so you get "invisible heating" and very even heating with no pool of cold air at foot level so for a given temperature the room may feel warmer. but UFH does lose some heat to the ground. On the other hand stinking hot radiators on an outside wall (where they are usually placed) will lead to more heat loss through the wall locally so the 2 systems may ballance out a bit. My suspicion is the insulation in the house may not be as good as claimed. I see a number of houses in construction and they vary from the exceptionally good with everything detailed perfectly, these tend to be owner builders. To the downright atrocious with lots of insulation thrown in, but literally thrown in with such poor detailing that there are air paths left to bypass the insulation and render it pretty ineffective. You really should have separate time controls for the radiator section and UFH section, with the UFH coming on earlier in the day to the radiators to account for the longer warm up time of the UFH. A good measure of how well the building fabric is performing would be to heat up the house to a known measured temperature at the end of the day, then turn the heating off completely over night and see what the temperature has dropped to by the morning. Set back temperatures on UFH are often used to counter the long warm up times and turn the UFH on again in the night if the temperature is dropping too far. That really should not be needed in a well insulated house as it should not drop that much.

I can see someone taking on the task of building the blocks DIY. But what about the bracing and the pour? Has anyone done that DIY? I would have though that bit was a job for the professionals, with them then being liable if there is a burst.

Are you saying your "well insulated new build" is using twice as much gas as your previous Victorian house? That does not sound right. Who built the new house and what can you tell us about it's construction and insulation? At the end of the day the amount of gas will be pretty much the same regardless of the method of delivery, in fact UFH will waste some heating the ground under the house, but if it was done properly with enough under floor insulation, that wastage will be small,

If it is noisy and needs a push, it sounds like the fan blades are catching on something? Either they are bent, or the motor bearings have gone and there is massive play. Look up if you can find someone local to refurbish the motor, start ny looking for "motor rewinds" it probably does not need a rewind but they should have the skills needed.

But the flow meters are all showing good flow around all pipes. And did I read that right 55 degree flow temperature ???? If the rooms are not heating up at that then I am at a loss to know what is wrong. Where are you and how cold is it?

I am with Octopus (If you want a referal code that will get you £50 off PM me) They are very transparent, and constantly getting good scores for customer service. They do work on a fixed monthly direct debit. But each month you send a meter reading and they immediately work out a bill and tell you how much your usage is. they keep a running total available on their website saying how much has been paid in (your DD) and how much has been taken out (your bill) and your monthly balance. There is a mechanism if YOU want to vary the Dd amount, there is a mechanism to make a one off extra DD payment if you have had a high usage, and there is a mechanism to request a refund if your account is too much in credit. I too have been looking to switch, but I cannot find anywhere else that is as flexible or gets such good reviews, and some of the alternatives get some shockingly bad reviews

Has it worked before or is this the first time you have turned it on?

It is surprising what people will do and obviously in their own mind think it is okay.

Okay so it might not need notification under part P,. but a Minor Works Certificate is a requirement of the wiring regulations not part P so that should still be issued.

I provisioned for a dedicated electric point in each bedroom for a small panel heater. They have not been needed and not installed and those points remain unused. But I am still glad I put them in.

I think the big issue is air tightness. You can say what you want in a specification, but if the person doing the work does not take care or does not understand what or why he is doing it, the results can be poor. At least now a new build is supposed to have an air test done, so you should get a real figure of how well it has been done. It is very easy to fit the required amount of insulation in such a poor way that it is ineffective, I have seen it plenty of times, but there is no easy way to measure how well it has actually been done.

That looks a nice plot but an eye watering cost compared to what you pay for a plot up here. If the planning does expire I would expect it to be a formality to be reinstated, I doubt that has much affect on the value. If in doubt, make your offer to purchase subject to planning then revise the application to make any changes you want and you would be buying it with full duration planning to suit how you would like it.

Is the issue the supply water or the waste water? If you want a back to wall toilet to go back to that wall, the waste and the supply will need buried in the wall.

If you are in a part P area then alterations to a kitchen definitely are notifiable under part P. It sounds to me like they are not even registered under a competent persons scheme? Were they electricians or "kitchen fitters"? some of the worst wiring to be found is done by kitchen fitters, probably only second to farmers wiring.